Anne Hathaway attends the 2026 Met Gala.Photo: Getty Images
As a regular attendee (now nine times!), Anne Hathaway was one of the most highly-anticipated A-listers at the 2026 Met Gala tonight—and the star certainly did not disappoint with her artful look.
Fresh off of her whirlwind press tours for The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Mother Mary, Hathaway made time to hit the Met steps in New York City wearing a custom, one-of-a-kind Michael Kors Collection dress, designed in collaboration with the prominent American artist Peter McGough (a close friend of Kors’s). To closely consider the evening’s dress code—“Fashion is Art”—the duo worked together on an elegant, hand-painted dress for Hathaway that was right on theme.
A sketch of Hathaway’s dress by Peter McGough.
A sketch of Hathaway’s dress by Michael Kors.
The black silk and Mikado ball gown, complete with a plunging neckline and high-leg slit, served as a sleek canvas that was adorned with McGough’s intricate hand-painting work. The inspiration for his peaceful visuals? A poem. “We used the poem by John Keats, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn,’ as a starting point for this one-of-a-kind, hand-painted strapless mikado ball gown,” Kors says. “We loved collaborating with Anne to tell a story that is as old as time: a wish for peace, beauty, and harmony.”
In the famed 1819 poem, Keats—an English poet—riffs on the relationship between art, beauty, and truth, using the Grecian urn as a form of symbolism. “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard, are sweeter,” he wrote. To capture the essence of the work, then, McGough painted the Kors gown with black and white scenes reminiscent of ancient urns (much like those displayed inside of the Met’s collection). Imagery of doves and floral flourishes are seen along the borders, while a goddess of peace is seen on the back train.
A sketch of the back of Hathaway’s dress, by Peter McGough.
“This dress, to me, is about the goddess of a Grecian urn, and what I love about the dress is that it turns the person into an object of art,” says McGough. “It’s moving art. Fashion and art, they go together for me: Fashion is wearable art.” The end result may have made for a striking red carpet moment—but it also had an imaginative and skillful touch that was indeed worthy of being hung up in the Met itself.
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